When Ben Hack, a member of the Eau Claire County Board, announced his bid for re-election and began collecting signatures for his nomination paper, he said he realized that few students knew about the county board.

“I would be willing to bet that not even one in 100 students knows what the county board is or that we even have a student on it,” assistant professor of political science Geoff Peterson said.

“Students pay a lot more attention to national issues than what is going on locally.”

Senior Dustin Schoepke said he’s never heard of the county board.

“I’m lazy and don’t pay attention to local politics because it’s not on CNN,” he said.

Despite the lack of knowledge it, there is student involvement in the board. Hack, a former UW-Eau Claire student currently taking classes at Chippewa Valley Technical College, was appointed in late August to the board after his predecessor, Eau Claire alumnus Andy Oettinger, left for law school.

Hack, who was a senior and chairman of the College Republicans last semester, is seeking re-election in the April 6 vote for a two-year term.

He described the board as an extension of state government that makes certain laws for the county and provides services. It is composed of 29 supervisors elected by district.

It’s a non-partisan office, Hack said, so you don’t have to state a party when you run.

“It’s basically meant for the good of the community,” he said. “Local government shouldn’t be partisan.”

The board meets twice a week, but Hack said most work is done through committees in which legislation is written. General meetings inform all members of the legislations what committees have concluded.

Hack is serving on the UW Extension committee and exposition center commission, the latter of which deals with county fairs and other events.

One of the biggest issues the board faces annually is the county budget. The budget for 2004, Hack said, is about $19 million.

“It’s up to us what we want to do with it,” he said. “Eau Claire County has generally been fiscally conservative and they don’t waste a lot of money.”

The turnout for county board races always has been low, and not just in the student population, Peterson said.

But Hack said there are still important issues, such as taxes, to deal with. He, along with other board members, wants to encourage economic growth through decreasing wasteful spending. But he said the government makes it hard when it doesn’t restrain its spending and mandates.

“In general, while the county government is very important and I feel people who work in county government are doing a good job, their job is made a lot tougher by state and federal policies on taxes,” Hack said.

Overall, he said he thinks students should become more aware of county government, as well as government in general, because it affects them in many ways.

While finishing his first shortened term on the county board, Hack is hopeful for his re-election.

“I feel it’s very important to promote economic growth in the county,” he said, “and I would like to restrain spending as much as possible while maintaining the level of services we have.”